elizabeth

Film4 11.05pm - 1.30am ★★★★

historical ⊲ A deadly game of cat and mouse is played out in this plush account of the first dozen years of Elizabeth I’s reign, as court intrigue decides whether she’ll remain queen. The film takes its strength from Cate Blanchett’s awesomely steely monarch, Joseph Fiennes as her lover, the Earl of Dudley, and Geoffrey Rush’s sinister Walsingham, the spymaster who ultimately proves her truest ally. Blanchett returned for the sequel Elizabeth: The Golden Age in 2007. Dir: Shekhar Kapur 1998, 15, 145min